Forward Nick Cousins signs a two-year deal worth $1.5 million annually with the Nashville Predators.
Nick Cousins is going to the #preds on a 2-year deal. $1.5m AAV
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) October 9, 2020
Nick Cousins Heads to Nashville
Cousins spent last season with the Vegas Golden Knights and the Montreal Canadiens. He played the majority of the season with Montreal where he scored 9 goals and 22 points in 58 games. Montreal traded him at the deadline to Vegas, and Cousins scored 3 points in 7 regular-season games, and five assists in 17 playoff games with the Golden Knights.
The 27-year-old has played in the NHL for six seasons, along with the teams previously mentioned, he has also played with the Arizona Coyotes and Philadelphia Flyers. Throughout his career, Cousins has consistently scored around 20 points a season. His career-high of 27 points was hit two years ago.
Nick Cousins was drafted by the Flyers 68th overall in the 2011 draft from the Soo Greyhounds of the OHL. Cousins was a high scorer in junior, racking up 291 points in 264 games over four seasons, all with the Greyhounds.
This is the third free-agent signing of the day for the Predators. They also signed defensemen Mark Borowiecki to a two-year contract worth $2 million a season and defensemen Matt Benning to another two-year deal worth $1 million a season.
What this means for the Future
Using the Predators depth chart from Cap Friendly, Cousins fits in as a bottom-six left-winger. That is a good spot for him, as he can provide a solid amount of secondary scoring, but the fact that he has never scored over 30 points doesn’t make him a fit as a top-six forward. He’s also played about 13 minutes a night throughout his career, so that’s probably where he stays in Nashville. His possession number look decent as well. He’s hovered around 50% Corsi for at even-strength throughout his career. However, this year it boosted to 54.6. Partially, because he was playing on two good possession teams in Montreal and Vegas. He should be able to fit in seamlessly with a good Nashville team.
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